Interview with Paimonia(SER)

Where were you born
and raised and did that had influence in your way chosing for this kind of
extreme music?

I was born &
raised in Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, which is a autonomous
province of Serbia. To be honest, I don’t think that had any
influence for me to start listening/playing this type of music, or music in
general.

You are quite young
for your age as already making such a development with your bands/music, as
maybe the enthousiam might also have to deal with it. Besides that, you are
also quite active with Elsewhere Shine. Where do you find the time in this busy
schedule, especially now with the new Paimonia record (released through
Humanity’s Plague Productions (USA)/Exalted Woe Records (USA)) in the pocket,
scoring high rates in almost every web-zine.

Thanks for the nice words.Well, it’s not so hard as it looks like, it depends on
good organization a lot because, besides music, I also study & work.
Elsewhere Shine is active as well, but only as a project without live
performances, so basically I always have time for studio work , having in mind
that Paimonia (currently) works also as a studio project.

Now that the record is out for a while now, what are the future plans?

Yes, it’s been almost
6 months since MC edition is released & CD release came out in February
this year. At the moment, we are waiting for more reviews & few interviews
as well, that’s the best way to promote the current release in my opinion. 3-way
split entitled “Anti-Human Manifest” with Zloslut & Mrznja is out through
Atramentum Productions (Canada) & probably we will try to promote that
release as well. Also, we have some plans to perform live by the end of 2014.
Those are some of the plans worth mentioning at the moment.

Before Paimonia you
played for a couple of years in the Death/Black metalband BANE, doing even an European tour. Are there
plans to do it all over with Paimonia again?

That’s right,I was the bassist/back vocalist for almost 2
years I think, where I went on 2 european tours: European tour with Infest in
2011 & “Crossing Over The Godless Path/Keepers Of The Black Flame” European
tour in 2012 with The Stone. As for Paimonia, I don’t think we will be able to
do such a thing, for now, because of our obligations, both N.P.V. & me
study & work, so at the moment, I think it’s not possible. Maybe we can
organize something like in that in the future, who knows.

In the period with BANE, you must have learn a
lot of great of deal in the tourlife. What were for you the ups and downs?

Of course,not just about life
on tour, but also about playing live in some other country where everything is,
unfortunately, better organized then in Serbia . I have only good memories from
that period & at the moment, I just can’t really remember some ups &
downs. We never had some serious problems on tours, guess we were pretty lucky.

-Paimonia 2014-

How is the live
line-up currently for Paimonia, and are there plans with this line-up to
continue a tour, since the band itself is a 2-man formation with N.P.V as a
fulltime drummer.

I can’t say anything about the line-up for live
performances at this particular moment because nothing is 100% sure. The fact
is, we have people interested for being session live members, but only the most
compatible ones will be a part of the band, just for live performances of course.

Paimonia opened up for bands like Corpus
Christii (POR),Somrak
(SLO) & Frostmoon Eclipse (ITA) in the past, on the festival ‘Festa
Satanica’ as for the first official EP being promoted (released through Silent
Scream Records & Bleichmond Tonschmiede) back in 2012. How was the
experience ?

Exactly, at that time
Somrak was promoting their “The Blackwinged Serpent Crowned”full-length
released in that same year, 2012, & Corpus Christii promoted their “Luciferian Frequencies”full-length released in
2011, so they together went on European tour with the goal to promote those
releases live as well. We & 3 more bands played as a support that night
& that was Paimonia’s first live performance ever,
also the live promotion of
previously released material, “Modern Way Of Distraction” EP, like you said. I’m
really satisfied with that performance really, we had rehearsals for 1 & a
half month if I remember correctly & logically we wanted to sound perfect
because it’s not a small thing when you open for some of the most known bands
in Black Metal underground, right?

There are always
different opinions if a band comes to it’s right performing live on stage. How
do you see that with Paimonia, and how does it go down with rehearsing, since
the rest still are session live members.

Well, since we did
just 2 showsin total, back in 2012, I can just say
everything went quite well. I must admit the sound in the crowd on “Festa
Satanica” was really good, there is also one video footage uploaded on Youtube.
As for the second performance, done in Novi Sad, the sound wasn’t that good
like on the previous one, but still, for the second show ever, it was more than
ok. N.P.V. & me will start with the rehearsals in a few weeks just to see
how will things go, after that we will probably practice with the session
members.

Since Branislav moved
to Canada to continue with BANE, and the record was released through a US
label, is there a change to see Paimonia performing live on stage overthere as well?
Perhaps US most largest Festival, namely Maryland, Deathfest? Or at least for
the band share stages with BANE?

I don’t think so, thecosts for
traveling there are too expensive for one underground extreme metal band,
especially the one coming from country like ours. Sharing stages with BANE is
possible of course, but only if Branislav plan to perform with the band
somewhere in Serbia & region.

Can you tell a bit more about your other
band/projects?

Sure.Besides Paimonia, I’m also a part of Elsewhere
Shine like we mentioned before, where I’m in charge for acoustic/lead &
rhythm guitars. Currently, Elsewhere Shine release a debut 3-track EP entitled
“The Wired” which is released through Depressive Illusions Records (Ukraine)
& at the moment we are planning to do a full-length album. I also did all
guitar recordings for the upcoming Svarun’s full-length entitled “Завештање I: Земља (The Legacy Vol.
I: The Land)” which is still in the process of mixing & will be probably
finished by the end of July. Just for the record, Svarun is N.P.V.’s project, a
lot of different styles & genres combined in one, probably to most
demanding material I’ve recorded so far.

Coming to
instruments. Any particular instrument what is your favorite one besides the
guitar, or traditional instruments for a Metalband for that matter?

In general, I’m a big fan of acoustic instruments, but
when it comes to metal, I especially love to see some traditional/acoustic instruments
combined with aggressive sound, you can notice a lot of acoustic guitars are
used on “Disease Named Humanity”, as well as violin. Probably the best
combination, in my opinion, of acoustic/traditional instruments & extreme
metal that I heard is on Panychida’s “Měsíc, les, bílý sníh ~ Moon, Forest,
Blinding Snow” where you can hear bagpipes, flutes, acoustic
guitars etc., really fascinating!